The present invention relates to micro-manipulators, and particularly to micro-manipulators that bring leading ends of gripping fingers into close proximity to handle micro-materials.
Micro-manipulators are used to assemble micro-parts or to handle cells. Generally, a micro-manipulator has a mechanism for moving gripping fingers to handle (grip) micro-objects (Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-168979, for example). Because the material to be gripped is minute, an operator normally watches the images under a microscope, with the naked eye. Alternatively, images output by a monitor, such as a display via a camera mounted on the microscope, are used to allow a user to operate the micro-manipulator (Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-303810, for example).
In addition, conventional micro-manipulators usually comprise a micro-material state (setting stage), on which the micro-material is disposed in a direction so that the leading ends of the gripping fingers, or other mechanism for changing the direction of the micro-material stage, face the object to be gripped, i.e., the micro-material. For example, when gripping a rectangular-shaped chip element and mounting it on a substrate, the leading ends of the gripping fingers gripping the micro-material and the direction of the substrate are manually positioned so that pins on the chip element lie on the substrate.
However, because the leading ends of the gripping fingers must be manually positioned relative to the micro-material to be gripped, conventional micro-manipulators are troublesome in that they may require trial and error to get the leading ends of the gripping fingers to grip the micro-material. Furthermore, if the object to be gripped is a cell, it may be damaged after multiple attempts. Accordingly, a micro-manipulator that can grip an object with the leading ends of the gripping fingers in one operation, without multiple attempts, is desirable.
Advancements have been made in standardization of chip elements on the order of the 0402 type (0.4 mm×0.2 mm). Therefore, a micro-manipulator that can grip even smaller micro-material, and can accurately and speedily place chips at land positions has even greater demand.
Micro-manipulators having mechanisms for moving the leading ends of the gripping fingers in the three dimension of X, Y, and Z are known in the field. However, unlike the movement in the X and Y directions, the movement of the leading ends of the gripping fingers in the Z direction opposes the direction of gravity and therefore such a feature is accompanied by an increase in the amount of energy consumed.
In view of the problems mentioned above, a compact, energy efficient micro-manipulator that accurately and quickly positions a micro-material in a visual field of a microscope, is desirable.